WWE 2K17 Xbox 360 Review

When you make a sports game, you’re supposed to have more and more features every year. Every improvement needs to be visible to the player, otherwise there was simply no point of making said changes. So where did WWE 2K17 go so very wrong? Well, I can think of a number of ways it went wrong. For starters, it was on the Xbox 360. But that’s not a real reason, right? Well, read on and find out for yourself.

Actually, let us not get ahead of ourselves. Surely there must be some resounding quality of this game that puts it above its current gen counterpart. Well, surprisingly, there is in fact a number of improvements. I’m not talking graphically of course, the game looks like someone tried to do a HD remake of Pong. Still, that’s not the point, there are in fact bonus features to this game that don’t make the current gen cut.

For starters, there are a hell of a lot more match types available to the user. A forty man Royal Rumble? You got it. The inferno match? You betcha! What about mixed tag matches, special guest referee and slobberknocker? Well, this game has you covered. It perplexes me that these are features in the pre-gen era, but not the current gen. I mean, WWE 2K18 is adding mixed tag matches back, and apparently this is a huge brilliance. Well, check again, because they never left the Xbox 360.

It genuinely does baffle me how the Xbox 360 iteration has a lot more content match wise on offer. But to be fair, as far as I am aware it seems to just be gameplay oriented where this version offers more. See, once you get over the fact that there is more to be played gameplay wise, this just boils down to what WWE 2K17 is on Xbox One. I mean, there’s no massive change that could warrant a purchase of both.

Or is there? There must have been some reason I bought this game. Well, no there isn’t. Mainly because I didn’t buy this game, I’m borrowing it off of a friend for some easy gamerscore. That seems to be a sudden trend of newer Xbox 360 games. They may look disgracefully bad, but at least you can play them for half an hour and get 400G.

Hell, why stop there, pretty much the whole thousand gamerscore is fantastic. Not fantastic as in it challenges you to do something out of the ordinary, but because it’s very easy. Play one match with AJ Styles? Sure, I can do that. Win twenty matches on hard? Easy so long as you use unlimited finishers. Yes, there is that infamous little trick in this game that is absent from the current gen.

See, for me, it comes down to this. Is there more content in this game than there is in the current generation of the exact same game. Well, yes, in my case there is a bit more content. MyCareer is nowhere to be seen, but to be fair in its current state it’s broken to all hell. So instead of that, the game adds literally nothing to replace it. The term “less is more” most definitely comes to mind when playing this game.

As I’ve mentioned once or twice throughout this article, graphically speaking the game is genuine trash. But, to be fair, that’s to be expected of a game like this. It’s not built for this console, it has to be toned down greatly so it can actually cope with being ran. However, the game has no excuse for looking worse than much older games in the series. Seriously, it’s on par with WWE ’12 in that sense.

The gameplay works, but the graphics don’t (WWE 2K17)

But graphics shouldn’t put you off of playing a game, right? Well, I would argue that in most cases, no it shouldn’t put you off of playing a game. But in this case I do have to go against what I would normally preach. This is for one major reason, the fact that WWE 2K17 is more or less a simulator. When it comes down to it, you’re probably playing this game for one of two reasons. One, you have some friends that own the game and want to play it with them. Or two, you want to play WWE Universe mode.

I see the appeal of both of those, and both are better experienced on a current gen console. However, needless to say, this was a very different experience because of what is absent and what is new. Clearly the addition of one or two gamemodes is not enough to warrant spending any major amount of money on a pre gen sports game. But saying that, there is something oddly appealing about this game that I can’t quite explain.

Verdict

Really, it comes down to which console you have. WWE 2K17 on the Xbox 360 is a visual travesty, but I can’t get over the fact that it has everything that the current generation has, but more. Sure, we miss out on MyCareer, but to be fair is anybody really playing that anymore?

Of course I can’t recommend this game though, that would be a very ridiculous concept indeed. When I mentioned the graphics looked bad, it never really struck me that they were beyond horrible. That’s just something to expect though. Really the only reason to play a game like this is for the gamerscore, or if you find it so cheap people are literally paying you to take it.

I mean, if anything this entire game boils down to 2K Games wanting to make a bit of money from the stragglers. Those that haven’t upgraded to a new generation of consoles, those that are still stuck in the past. There is of course nothing wrong with that, but it’s worth noting that there are still constant releases for the Xbox 360. Hell, this was as expensive as WWE 2K17 when it first released on the Xbox One, which I honestly find a bit ridiculous. The things people will do for money though, right?

REVIEW OVERVIEW

WWE 2K17 (Xbox 360)

4

SUMMARY

Yes, it is getting the same score as the Xbox One iteration. When you boil it down, the core gameplay is still the same, just the Xbox 360 version doesn't have as many bells and whistles attached to it. In that regard, it is the better game, but the graphical limitations are more than enough to not purchase this game.